Abstract
BackgroundThe Affordable Care Act (ACA) required private insurers and Medicare to cover recommended preventive services without any cost sharing to improve utilization of these services. This study is an attempt to identify the impact of removing cost sharing on mammography and pap test utilization rates.MethodsCounterfactual analysis was used to predict what would have been the screening rates in post-ACA if ACA was not there. This was done by estimating a model that examines determinants of dependent variable for the pre-ACA year (pre-ACA year is 2009). The estimated model was then used to predict the dependent variable for the post-ACA year using individual characteristics and other relevant variables unlikely to be affected by ACA (post-ACA year is 2016). Effect of ACA is defined as the difference between the values of dependent variables in post-ACA and the predicted values of dependent variables in the post-ACA year using counterfactual.ResultsThe counterfactual analysis show that the utilization of mammogram and pap test did not improve following ACA.ConclusionRemoval of cost-sharing under the ACA did not improve mammography or pap test rates. Therefore, financial barrier may not be an important factor in affecting utilization of the screening tests and policy makers should focus on other non-financial barriers in order to improve coverage of the tests.
Highlights
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required private insurers and Medicare to cover recommended preventive services without any cost sharing to improve utilization of these services
As the effect of removing cost-sharing on mammography and pap test utilization are still unclear, this study aims to generate evidence on the impact of changes brought about by the ACA on mammography and pap tests rates
Outcome The study outcomes are the self-reported receipt of mammogram and Pap test as measured in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) dataset
Summary
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) required private insurers and Medicare to cover recommended preventive services without any cost sharing to improve utilization of these services. This study is an attempt to identify the impact of removing cost sharing on mammography and pap test utilization rates. Cancer is among the leading causes of death in the United States. Mammography and pap test screenings allow early detection of the diseases leading to potentially successful treatment [2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Despite evidence of screening effectiveness in improving health outcomes, rates of mammography and pap test screenings remained suboptimal in the United States [9].
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